The team has representation in Margaret River, Bunbury and Geraldton and employs a number of planning professionals with experience in both Local Government and state planning thus with the knowledge of typical town planning processes, caravan park and camping legislation, bushfire requirements, engineering constraints and land tenure issues. The team has developed working relationships and contacts across Government.
With recent work on a number of large caravan parks across the state Halsall & Associates have teamed up with landscape designer Karin Kemp (Fronds Landscaping) to achieve approval for a number of caravan park developments. Landscape design is a fundamental part of planning within parks and Karin Kemp has developed expert knowledge of design parameters for caravan, camping and chalets sites as well as detailed understanding of amenity requirements, road layouts, setbacks and numbers of facilities needed under the Regulations/Act.
Halsall & Associates are members of the Caravan Industry Association and are available to assist anywhere in the state.
Presently projects include Kalbarri and Walpole and although based in Bunbury and Margaret River, this location is well placed central to the coastal areas of the state and has been a hot bed of tourist development particularly in Margaret River where extensive experience has also been received from dealing with all types of tourist development proposals.
It is often an objective to combine tourism related commercial activities with a caravan park including cafe, restaurant, function centre, reception centre and recreation facilities in certain circumstances. Town planning consultants are well placed to also consider such land uses within the sometimes complex realm of local planning scheme and other relevant legislation taking into account the relevant planning issues.
Market factors and objectives of caravan park owners to ensure an economically viable park.
Consideration of existing caravan park layout where renovation of an old park is proposed.
Shire/City Policies and Strategies.
The Caravan and Camping Act and Regulations.
Land characteristics and constraints.
Engineering design factors including access and parking design, drainage and servicing.
Bushfire management planning which is becoming increasingly fundamental.
Consideration of lease requirements where applicable.
Inter-relationship with surrounding areas such as foreshores, bushland areas and surrounding residential/urban areas.
Consideration of surrounding planning objectives.
“Working with Halsall and Associates relieved a huge amount of stress from us while we were trying to receive development approval from the Dandaragan Shire to install new units through our Jurien Bay Caravan and Tourist Park. Marc and his team work tirelessly to wade through the red tape that often comes with dealing with government bodies. They make sure to dot the i’s and cross the t’s to get things done correctly the first time so development plans are not slowed down and so that we can continue with the daily operations of our business. We use Marc and his team for all our of shire applications and they are invaluable to our business.”
“In an age of endless new electronics, disrepect and laziness by many, Marc Halsall is one of those very genuine people that restores one’s faith in mankind. With excellent morals, trustworthiness and honesty with people, I have no hesitation recommending Marc”
“He knows every intricacy of the battlefield. He is tenacious and courageous and he keeps on grinning.”
Halsall & Associates was engaged by the owners of the park to assist in liaising with the Shire of Dandaragan and review the Caravan / Tourist Park layout with a view to seeking approval to improve the mix of accommodation within the park, address Shire requirements and achieve an extended lease.
It was determined that the Shire required consideration of alternative methods of access to the Tourist Park should other detailed planning be implemented in the future. This involved consideration of movement of traffic including accessibility for vehicles towing caravans.
Careful consideration was also necessary with respect to the presentation of the Park to various streetscapes and inter-relationship with the surrounding development given the central location of the Park within the town of Jurien Bay and surrounding planning objectives.
The detailed redesign allowed for maximisation of use of land within the park whilst retaining an appropriate mix of chalets, caravan and camping sites. Due attention also needed to be given to the Caravan and Camping Regulations some of the residents long standing permanent vans that were occupied and fire management issues.
To seek the support of Council for the project a staged approach was employed. This started with liaison with the Shire officers and presentation to Council Meetings with a view to securing concurrence on the relevant issues that need to be addressed such that Council could support a concept. The Shire supported the concept and extension of the lease providing confidence to formulate and lodge a development application addressing town planning requirements, the wishes of Council with respect to the related peripheral planning within the area and Caravan and Camping Regulations.
The result is that the Jurien Bay Tourist Park is now approved for long term improvement and modification to the satisfaction of the Shire of Dandaragan with a long term lease and maximisation of accommodation options maintaining the variety of accommodation types.
Challenges for this project included negotiating with Council providing confidence that redevelopment was appropriate such that an extended lease could be achieved, achieving a design that was cognisant of peripheral town planning aims and having a design flexible enough to support long term changes to the access to the park and how this could be retro fitted in the future and achieving client objectives for an efficient use of space and better mix of accommodation types to meet the market.
